Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, you'll learn 10 common abbreviations that
you should know if you work or want to work in the business world. Okay? It's possible
you have heard many of these, and possibly not. So, let's make sure that you know all
So, first I'm just going to read them to you, and you can see if you've heard them before
or if you know what they are. Okay?
"CEO", "PR", "HR", "ISO", "ROI",
"MBA", "VAT" or "V-A-T", "USP", "Ltd.", and "Inc."
Okay? So, possibly you've heard some of these before.
Let's go into them in more detail.
So, what is a "CEO", or better still: Who is a CEO?
So, a "CEO" stands for "Chief Executive Officer". Okay?
And the Chief Executive Officer is the most senior executive in a corporation,
in a for-profit corporation. Okay? So he's the topmost executive.
"PR". Okay? What does "PR" stand for?
"PR" stands for public relations. So, this term
could define the field or it could def-... Describe a department in a particular company
or corporation. And what is the job of this department? Their job or their responsibility
is to spread information to the public about the organization, about the corporation, maybe
in the form of new developments, in the form of press releases. Okay? If there's a crisis...
Or even if something negative happens, it's the job of the public relations department
to communicate that in a positive way. Sometimes they have a different section, crisis communications,
but basically, "PR" stands for "public relations". Good.
"HR". Okay? So, "HR" is something that you probably have heard before, especially if
you've ever been for a job interview, you might have met an HR representative. So, "HR"
stands for "human resources". Now, the term "human resources" can, again, refer to the
entire field of managing people, it can refer to a particular department in a company that
is responsible for all of the personnel that work in that organization or that company.
All right? It's responsible for hiring them, for training them, and for all the administration
that has to do with the staff or the personnel that work in that company. Okay? But HR, as
in human resources, can also just refer to the people themselves-okay?-who work in a
Next is "ISO". All right? Now, this stands for "International Organization for Standardization".
Okay? It's a long name for a very important organization, and it's a group that basically
confers or gives quality certification to different companies for their products, for
their materials, for their processes. They set quality benchmarks or quality standards.
Okay? So you might see in a particular company that they are ISO 9,000 certified or something
like that, and that's very important because it indicates that they have a certain degree
of quality in that organization regarding that area. Okay? So it's basically an organization
that sets quality benchmarks, ISO. Okay?
Next is "ROI". Okay? So "ROI" has to do with finance. And it's basically... Stands for,
first of all, "return on investment".
"ROI", "return on investment".
ratio that helps finance people to determine if a particular investment is going to give
them profit or give them savings. All right? So that's what the "ROI" stands for,
"return on investment", and it's a profitability ratio. Okay.
Next: "MBA". That, you probably have heard of. Okay? We might hear somebody saying:
Now, you noticed that I said "an MBA". Why did I say "an MBA"?
Do you know? Usually, we say "an" before a vowel. Right? But, it's not only before a vowel.
It's actually before anything that has a vowel sound. So the... The letter "m" is like "e-m",
"em", so therefore, we cannot say: "He has a MBA",
we say: "He has an MBA." All right?
We also say that. And an "MBA" stands for "Master of Business Administration".
So, it's a graduate business degree. Okay? It's a very popular graduate degree in business.
Next is "VAT" or "value-added tax".
So, value-added tax is a very common tax on goods and services,
usually in Europe-okay?-you'll hear this a lot. "Is the VAT included in the price?" The
value-added tax. Okay? There are different taxes, of course, in every country and every
part... Or part of the world, but a VAT...
VAT is a very popular common tax in Europe especially.
All right, "USP". So, what's "USP"? "USP" stands for "unique selling point" or
"unique selling proposition", and that's a term from the field of marketing.
So, your USP... If you're selling a product,
then it has to have a USP. It has to have something special about
it that will make people want to buy your product, and that special thing, that special
quality, that special something is the... Your USP, your unique selling proposition
that makes people choose your product over another product. Okay?
Next we have two terms that are very commonly used: "Ltd." And "Inc." And both of them basically
refer to corporations that have been incorporated, in fact. Okay? What does that mean when something
is limited? What is actually limited, do you know? What's limited is the liability, which
is the financial responsibility in case there are any debts. In case the company loses money,
then the corporation, which is an entity, which is a body by itself is the one that
people come to to try to collect their money; and they don't go to particular individuals,
to people, to their homes to get their money. So, that's what's "limited". It's actually
"limited liability" or responsibility for financial burdens. Okay? So, don't say "Ltd."
Some people, by mistake, say: "Ltd.", it's not really correct. You should say: "Limited",
even though you see "Ltd." in short. And this one is sometimes pronounced "Inc." or otherwise,
you say the whole term, which is "incorporated". Okay?
So, let's just review quickly. What's HR?
What's the ISO? Well, you don't have to know the actual
"International Organization for Standardization",
just know that it's... What it does. Okay? So it sets those quality benchmarks, quality standards.
Master of Business Administration. And these terms: "Ltd.", "Inc." refer to
limited liability, which means that the company is incorporated. Okay?
So, if you want to know more about these, if you want to practice them and get really
comfortable with these terms and these abbreviations, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.
There, you can do a quiz on this. You'll also have a chance to see these written out, like
"CEO, Chief Executive Officer", and so on, in our quiz,
so you'll have a chance to reinforce what you already know so well now. Okay?